Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I love Harry and David pepper & onion relish and recently I found a recipe to make it at home. I decided Sat. would be a good day to see if it is like H&D's. I cut and chopped and had the best time. I had learned the correct way to use a knife at USC Summer Institute and really put those skills to work. Anyway I am just getting the relish on to cook for an hour and decide to heat up some leftovers for supper. I thought I heard a zzzt sound from the microwave but with so much going on I didn't pay much attention to it. I served up our plates and noticed the food wasn't as hot as Paul likes it so back it goes in the microwave. I checked on it just a minute later and smoked poured out of the microwave. Guess I know what that zzzt sound meant. I rushed to open doors, windows, get fans anything to keep the smoke alarm from going off. I hate that sound!! While we were rushing around Paul happened to notice a beautiful double rainbow. So in the middle of all the confusion, I grabbed my camera to take pictures. Guess this was God's way sending me a reminder to calm down eveything would be okay. Message received. Thank you God. I tried to get a picture from the front of the house showing the our house at the end of the rainbow but it didn't turn out. You may notice the front door is open to air out the house.

Sunrise over the Atlantic OceanWhat a wonderful way to end our vacation. We got up early to pack up and hit the road. I looked out and saw this beautiful sunrise. I told Paul I wish I had gotten up early some of the mornings to see this beautiful sight. Paul told me the whole point of a vacation was to sleep late! oh well. We headed out toward Stuart, Va where we entered the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was so foggy for about an hour we couldn't see the scenery.We pulled into a Parkway attraction and the fog seemed to lift. We got out several times for pictures and were so surprised how cool it was. The truck said 67 at 2:00 in the afternoon. Nice change from the 100+ temps we had back home.

We spent the morning at the beach knowing it was our last day. : (That afternoon we went out to take some pictures and do a little shopping. Va Beach has some great setups for "kodak moments" We took advantage of a few of them. I had enough forethought to bring the tripod so we could have some "couple" pics.

Okay I had to take a brief break to do some work. Now back to our vacation. Day five was Thursday and we spent the day at the beach. We did have a brief rain shower so we packed up headed inside for a short time. We ate lunch and then decided to see the sights on the Broadwalk. This is a wonderful wide concrete walkway along the beach. There is also a bike path that runs between the boardwalk and the hotels. All week we had seen families and couples riding in bicyle powered surreys so we found a vendor and rented one for an hour. No problem. OMG thank goodness Paul has very strong legs! I tried to help. AND I must have because my legs were so sore the next day. We gladly turned in our surrey a "few' minutes early.

Friday, August 20, 2010

As we drove to the hotel on Monday night I noticed several things. 1. There were crowds of people everywhere and this is after midnight on a Monday night. Really??2. The street names sounded very familiar. Baltic Ave., Atlantic Ave., Pacific Ave, Mediterranean Ave. Sounds like a Monopoly Game. Well I googled it and the game is patterned after Atlantic City and Virginia Beach is patterned after Atlantic City. Now back to day three, you won't see any pictures because we spent the entire day on the beach and I didn't even take my camera with me. But it was great with the exception of the very cold Atlantic Ocean.BRRRRDay Four was our 31st wedding aniversary and to celebrate the day we did a sight seeing tour back to the lighthouses we missed. I wanted to climb the tallest lighthouse in the world. Lordy what was I thinking. But it was great once we got to the top. We also checked out two other lighthouses and Kitty Hawk area. I'll continue our trip tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

What a beautiful (and long) day. The scenery was breath taking. We headed to the coast and arrived at the outer banks just in time to board the ferry for a 2 hour 40 minutes trip. We must be very lucky, seems you really SHOULD have reservations and know the departure times. We got to the dock about 10 minutes before the ferry loaded and after a few minutes we were driving onto the ferry. We were even treated to a beautiful rainbow on the trip.Here are some pictures as we approach Cape Ocracoke. It is hard to believe that pirates once roamed these waters. In fact Blackbeard is buried here on Cape Ocracoke. Shiver me timbers!

Ocracoke Lighthouse

We drove a little farther and then boarded another ferry for a short ride to Cape Hatteras.By this time the sun was setting and we were two tired and hungry vacationers. We headed to Virginia Beach and made it just after midnight. I'll leave you with a beautiful sunset from the ferry

After a very busy summer for both of us, we took a wonderful vacation. I'll post in sections. Yes I took lots of pictures (most of the time). We did take the tripod for a few shots of both of us. We left Sunday morning at 3:30 am. Yes in the morning. We got up at 3 and were pulling out of the driveway at 3:30. We made it to Tuscaloosa in time for breakfast. I drove while Paul took a short nap. (Needless to say I had already had a few naps) We stopped for lunch somewhere between TN and NC at a Bar B Que Place and then made it to Greensboro for the night. Here are a few pictures from day one.